Putting him down

[Kovalciks Chickens]

I have a Jap Roo and he has gone blind in both eyes 2 weeks ago. He can still see outta one eye but he sits with that eye upward looking. Every time he moves he has a mini-seizure trying to get back into the comphy spot even if he is already sitting right side up. What is the best way to put him down? If anyone wants him, please contact me ASAP.

 

[Kovalciks Chickens]

Anyone?

 

[Ariel301]

We put them down the same way we kill them to eat. Cut the throat quickly with a sharp knife, severing everything but the spine. We use baling twine to tie the legs together too so they don't thrash around a lot. It's tough to have to do that when they're sick or injured.

 

[Oven Ready]

We have one very similar. He's the old rooster - the young blood challenged him and won, leaving the old boy blind in both eyes and with a tatty comb but it's been a few months now and he is still managing to get around and feed himself but he prefers to sit still all day and move about at night. He's currently grandfathering three orphan chicks whose mothers were taken by a dog. I'm not sure if he knows he's looking after them but the chicks hang with him all day.
We feed him on a plastic tray so he can hear when his feet are on the food and he starts pecking.

As for helping him on his way, we pull their necks and then chop their heads off.
The neck pull kills them but the twitching and flapping might make you think they're not dead so a quick chop with a machete confirms it.

If you can figure out what the seizures are being caused by and can remedy them, blindness doesn't seem to that much of a problem for them.

Is it the black one in your avatar? He looks lovely. We don't have any blacks, only black tail whites, black tail buffs and a couple of blue females (I think they are blues anyway).

 

[MandyH]

Sorry about your predicament. My husband always pulls and twists all in one motion. Don't pull too hard, but be firm. If it's up to me and I can't do the pull and twist, I get out the shotgun. HTH.

 

[Oven Ready]

Don't pull too hard, but be firm

I don't think there is a 'too hard'. There definitely is a 'too soft' and that's not nice.
Even if 'too hard' means removing the head completely, the end result is what you wanted - a quickly dead chicken.

If you decide to pull (and twist) pull until you feel the head remove from the spine. It's a very obvious sensation, you get about an inch or two of free play all of a sudden, but extremely hard to describe in words properly.​

 

[MandyH]

That's why I said not too hard. It'snotnicewhen you pullthe head completely offand have blood everywhere.

 

[lynxs1981]

For future reference. Thanks for the info guys.